Stupid White Men
Ok, so i've come to realize that Indonesia is not quite the best place in the world to find internet connections that aren't running off 15 year old computers and connection speeds that take 10 minutes to load a web page. I guess its to be expected, but its frustrating none the less when we're used to what we have at home. Up until now, i simply haven't had the patience to deal with them, but i've now found a place that is manageable, so you all can feel honoured that i'm taking time out of my busy day to update you on my wacky adventures.
I think the last email i wrote was back in Yogyakarta, after we'd gone to borobudur. Since then, quite a bit has happened. So much to tell, and i wish you all could see and experience everything, but i'll just be brief and sum it up quickly cause i've wasted an hour here trying to upload my photos. So basically, after my last email, we were lured up to mount Merapi, with promises of seeing an erupting volcanoe from the summit complete with flowing lava and smoke. In reality, we were not allowed to climb up high because of the danger of it suddenly erupting, and we couldn't see any lava. it was a cool experience though, and the view of the smoking volcano was pretty cool. I learned though to be careful when i drink lots of water cause having to pee on a bumpy bus ride when the driver won't stop and nobody cares is no fun! In D'arcy's last email he said we climbed to the summit, but he, much like the rickshaw drivers here, is a big fat liar. He wanted to sound cool, when in reality he was bitching the entire way up about how he was too tired and just wanted to go home. We didn't even come close to the summit.
So after that trek, we decided that being in a country of 13 000 islands for over a week and not seeing the beach was not sitting well, so we hightailed it to a beach town on the south coast of Java where all the locals from yogyakarta go to hang out and play in the sand. It wasn't quite the white, sandy beaches i was looking forward to, but there were wicked waves to budy surf in, even though we weren't allowed to swim in the water because of huge rip tides, but it was ok cause we are stupid white men. We chilled out there for a few days and enjoyed the peace and quite (as far as indonesian standards go anyway), and then took off to solo, another city east of Yogyakarta where we ate at Mcdonalds, talked to some other travellers (the first we'd talked to the entire trip), and i went on a mini shopping spree buying cheap shit. The best score being my North face rain jacket for 9 bucks, which would be like $250 at home. Even if its fake, its pretty dam good cause we all still can't prove it is. Its crazy how few other travellers we've seen. The bombings have just killed the tourism industry on Java, which is sad cause it really is an amazing place. Being the only travellers has its ups and downs. We got real good deals on stuff cause everyone was so desperate for our business, but annoying because everyone wants to talk to us and sell us stuff and after a while you just get sick and tired of the attention.
So after solo, we took a 10 hour train ride to the base town for another active volcano. The train was such a cool experience. I walked down and stood at the doorway, hanging halfway out the door for what must have been a couple hours and just couldn't get over the feeling and just how good I felt. I feel so free and at peace. Every person i flew by pointed at me like i was some sort of alien. Its such an abstract concept to understand here. in canada we're so used to seeing people of all races, but here, people are so shocked to see us. Its quite a switch.
After getting off the train in Probobingo, we got ripped off taking a bus to the base town of mount Bromo (as we always do, but it still costs us next to nothing in canadian dollars) but we got there none the less Simply the most amazing, surreal landscape i have ever seen in my entire life. Check out the photos if i can get them to work cause they say it all. The first day there we hiked out to the smoking volcano crater and looked down inside. then we threw rocks in and tried to plug up the hole but it didn't work. Then next day we got up at 3am and hiked to the top of the giant outer crater for the sunrise and the view was incredible. I think it used to be a giant volcano that blew its top, filled in with a crater lake, which then dried up to form a desert with newly forming volcanos inside. whatever it is, it was awesome.
From there we took another painful overnight bus to our current location, the island of Bali. Its a whole different world here. There are actually other tourists and white people everywhere. Its a different scene here. Its pretty much the Tourist central of indonesia, the only place most people come. We bought these funny masks and swords for 80 cents canadian and we're gonna get drunk tonight and go attract attention to ourselves. It should be interesting.
So thats my brief update for now. Hopefully after i send this i can get my photos to work cause theres some cool ones. Hopefull everyone's doing allright back home, and i'll have a large Bintang beer for ya all ($1.20 canadian for an 800mL!).
